Flag of Nigeria

What the flag of Nigeria looks like

The flag of Nigeria is made of three vertical bands of equal width. A green band sits at the hoist, a white band in the middle and a second green band at the fly. The proportions are 1:2, so the flag is twice as long as it is high. There is no emblem, star or inscription, which makes it a very simple and easy-to-recognize flag.

Because the design has only two colors, it is often described as a vertically striped bicolor, or as a green-white-green triband. The green is a medium, fairly dark shade, and the white is plain white. You can see the exact shades in the color swatches on this page.

Do not confuse it with the flag of its northern neighbor Niger, which has horizontal stripes of orange, white and green with an orange disc in the middle. Their names are similar, since both are named after the Niger River. If you only need a small icon, there is the Nigeria flag emoji and a flag download page with images in several sizes.

Nigeria flag meaning and symbolism

The Nigeria flag meaning is simple and is taught in schools across the country. The two colors have these standard meanings:

• Green represents agriculture.
• White represents peace and unity.

Nigeria is a federation of over 250 ethnic groups, among them the Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo, and several major religions. The two colors are often read as a call to peace and cooperation among all of them. Green is also the color most often associated with growth and hope, and the combination makes the flag look quite different from the red, white and blue flags of Britain and the United States. Green and white are also the colors of the national football team, the Super Eagles, although the team's shirts are not always the same shade as the flag.

History of the Nigerian flag

Before independence, the area was under British control. After the Southern and Northern Nigeria protectorates were joined in 1914, Lord Lugard designed a flag for the Nigerian Protectorate: a blue field with the Union Jack in the canton and a red disc on the fly containing a green hexagram around the royal crown. This was a colonial flag, not a national flag chosen by Nigerians.

As independence approached, a national planning committee ran a competition to choose a flag. Almost 3,000 entries were submitted, and in 1959 the winner was a design by Michael Taiwo Akinkunmi, then a student at a technical college in London. His version had a red 16-ray quarter sun on the white stripe, but after the design was accepted the committee removed the sun and left the plain green-white-green flag that we see today.

The flag was raised for the first time at the independence ceremony on 1 October 1960. The same design has been in use since then, through the civil war of 1967-70 and several changes of government. Akinkunmi became well known as the designer of the flag.

How the flag is used

The Nigerian flag is flown on public buildings, schools and at official events every day. Nigeria celebrates Independence Day on 1 October, when the flag is raised at ceremonies across the country. The national coat of arms is separate from the flag: it shows an eagle above a black shield with a wavy white Y-shaped band, which stands for the rivers Niger and Benue that meet in the country. For other flags, browse flags of Africa.